A-R Online Music Anthology www.armusicanthology.com Content Guide The Medieval Period, Part 2: Polyphonic Traditions Karen M. Cook is associate professor of music history at By Karen M. Cook The Hartt School at the University of Hartford. She specializes in late medieval music history, with current The University of Hartford research projects treating various aspects of mensural theory and notation in late-fourteenth-century France. Assigned Readings She also focuses heavily on the intersections between Core Survey music and medievalism, particularly in video games, the subject of several recent publications in the journal Historical and Analytical Perspectives postmedieval and the Oxford Handbook of Music and Composer Biographies Medievalism. Supplementary Readings - Anonymous IV, excerpt from De mensuris et discantu - Johannes de Grocheio, excerpts from De musica Suggestions for Further Reading Summary List Genres to Understand Musical Terms to Understand Contextual Terms, Figures, and Events Main Concepts Scores and Recordings Exercises This workbook is for authorized use only. Unauthorized copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. If you have questions about using this article, please contact us: http://www.armusicanthology.com/anthology/Contact.aspx Content Guide: The Medieval Period, Part 2 (Polyphonic Traditions) 1 ______________________________________________________________________________ Content Guide The Medieval Period, Part 2: Polyphonic Traditions Karen M. Cook Assigned Readings Core Survey o James Maiello, “Medieval Music” Focus on the following sections: • Early Polyphony and the Birth of Harmony • Intersections of Sacred and Secular (revisited) • Intertextuality (revisited) Historical and Analytical Perspectives o Fiona McAlpine, “Genres and Forms in the Baroque Era” Focus on the following sections: • Isorhythm • Other Plainchant Forms: Sacred Forms (revisited) • The Formes fixes of the French Fourteenth Century: Rondeau, Ballade • The Italian Trecento o Fiona McAlpine, “Music Theory in the Middle Ages” Focus on the following sections: • Early Polyphony • Notre Dame Organum • The Motet • Ars Nova • Ars Subtilior o Emily Laurance, etc., “Commentary on Alleluia: Justus ut palma, from Ad organum faciendum” o Emily Laurance, etc., “Commentary on Motets on Tenor ‘Dominus’ “ o Emily Laurance, etc., “Commentary on Messe de Nostre Dame: Kyrie, by Guillaume de Machaut” o Emily Laurance, etc., “Commentary on Non avrà ma’ pietà, by Jacopo da Bologna” Composer Biographies o Alice V. Clark, “Guillaume de Machaut” o Lucia Marchi, “Francesco Landini” www.armusicanthology.com Do Not Copy A-R Online Music Anthology Content Guide: The Medieval Period, Part 2 (Polyphonic Traditions) 2 ______________________________________________________________________________ Supplementary Readings Supplementary Reading 1: Excerpt from De mensuris et discantu Anonymous IV Reproduced from Piero Weiss & Richard Taruskin, Music in the Western World: A History in Documents (Belmont, CA: Schirmer, 1984) Master Leoninus was generally known as the best composer of organum, who made the great book (Magnus Liber) of organa for Mass and Office for the enhancement of the Divine Service. This book was in use until the time of the great Perotinus, who shortened it and substituted a great many better clausulae, because he was the best composer of discant and better than Leoninus. Moreover, this same Master Perotinus wrote excellent compositions for four voices, such as Viderunt [omnes, the Gradual for the third Mass of Christmas Day] and Sederunt [principes, the Gradual of the Feast of St. Stephen, Martyr], replete with artful musical turns and figures, as well as a considerable number of very famous pieces for three voices, such as the Alleluias Posui adiutorium, Nativitas, etc. Besides, he also composed conductus, such as Dum sigillum summi patris, and monophonic conductus, e.g. Beata viscera, and lots more. The book, or rather books, of Master Perotinus have remained in use in the choir of the Church of Our Blessed Virgin in Paris [i.e., Notre Dame] until the present day. www.armusicanthology.com Do Not Copy A-R Online Music Anthology Content Guide: The Medieval Period, Part 2 (Polyphonic Traditions) 3 ______________________________________________________________________________ Supplementary Reading 2: Excerpts from De musica Johannes de Grocheio Reproduced from Piero Weiss & Richard Taruskin, Music in the Western World: A History in Documents (Belmont, CA: Schirmer, 1984) The music which men in Paris use can, so it seems, be broken down into three broad categories. We say that one category is that of simple [i.e., monophonic] music, which they call vulgar [i.e., vernacular] music. Another is that of compound [i.e., polyphonic] music, which they call measured music … The third type is called ecclesiastic and is designated for praising the Creator. Vulgar: Musical forms contained under the first category, which we have named vulgar music, are of two types: either they are performed by the human voice or by artificial instruments. Those which are performed by the human voice are of two types. We call these either a cantus or a cantilena. A cantus is called chanson de geste if it relates the deeds of heroes and the achievements of our ancient fathers, such as the life and martyrdom of various saints, the battles and difficulties which men of old underwent for their faith and belief, the life of the Blessed Stephen, and the history of Charlemagne. This kind of song ought to be provided for old men, working citizens, and for average people when they rest from their accustomed labor, so that, having heard the miseries and calamities of others, they may more easily bear up under their own, and go about their own tasks more gladly. A cantus coronatus is normally composed by kings and nobles and performed before kings and princes of the earth so that it may move their souls to audacity and bravery, to magnanimity and liberality, which lead all things to a good order. This kind of song is about delightful and serious subjects, such as friendship and charity. A particular kind of cantilena is called round or rotundellus by many, for the reason that it turns back on itself in the manner of a circle and begins and ends the same way. We, however, call round or rotundellus only that whose parts do not have a different melody from the melody of their response or refrain. It is the custom in the West, for example in Normandy, for girls and young men to sing a cantilena of this type to enhance their festivals and great gatherings. The method of composing all these types is normally the same. First, words are provided as raw material, afterwards a melody is adapted to the text in an appropriate way. Let us now turn to instrumental forms. Instruments are divided by some people on the basis of how they generate artificial sound. They say that sound on instrumetns is made by the breath, as in trumpets, reed instruments, flutes, and organs; or by percussion, as in strings, drums, cymbals, and bells. Among these, stringed instruments occupy the chief place, i.e., the psaltery, harp, lute and fiddle. And here, of all the www.armusicanthology.com Do Not Copy A-R Online Music Anthology Content Guide: The Medieval Period, Part 2 (Polyphonic Traditions) 4 ______________________________________________________________________________ instruments of the string family, so we feel, the fiddle occupies the main place, for a good performer on the fiddle uses normally every kind of cantus and cantilena and every musical form. Those, however, that are commonly performed before the wealthy in feasts and games, are, besides the cantus coronatus about which we have talked before, the ductia and stantipes. A ductia is an untexted piece, measured with an appropriate percussive beat. I say untexted since, although it can be performed by the human voice and represented in notation, it cannot, however, be written in words, for it is lacking in word and text. But I say with an appropriate percussive beat because these beats measure it and the movement of the performer, and excite the soul of man to move ornately according to the art they call dancing. A stantipes is also an untexted piece of a complicated nature; it makes the soul of the performer and also the soul of the listener pay close attention and frequently turns the soul of the wealthy from depraved thinking. The sections of ductia and stantipes are commonly called puncta. A punctum is a systematic joinng together of two sections alike in their beginning, differing in their end, which are usually called close and open. To compose ductia and stantipes is to shape the sound through puncta and correct beats. Just as natural material is shaped by natural form, so the sound is shaped by puncta and by the artificial form given to it by the craftsman. Measured music: Certain people, relying on experiment, discovered a kind of song in two voices dependent on both perfect and imperfect consonances. But others, relying on the three perfect consonances, have invented a song in three voices, regulated by a uniform measure, which they have called a precisely measured song; it is this type of song that present-day people in Paris use. We divide it into three broad categories according to the custom of people today, that is, motets, organum and cut-up song which they call hocket. A motet is a song composed of many voices, having many words or a variety of syllables, everywhere sounding in harmony. Each line ought to have a text with the exception of the tenor, which in some has a text and in others not. This kind of song ought not to be propagated among the vulgar, since they do not understand its subtlety nor do they delight in hearing it, but it should be performed for the learned and those who seek after the subtleties of the arts. And it is normally performed at their feasts for their edification, just as the cantilena which is called rotundellus is performed at the feasts of the vulgar.